A blog for the United States branch of the global Centre for Fortean Zoology

At the beginning of the 21st Century monsters still roam the remote, and sometimes not so remote, corners of our planet. It is our job to search for them. The Centre for Fortean Zoology [CFZ] is - we believe - the largest professional, scientific and full-time organisation in the world dedicated to cryptozoology - the study of unknown animals. Since 1992 the CFZ has carried out an unparalleled programme of research and investigation all over the world. Since 2009 we have been running the increasingly popular CFZ Blog Network, and although there has been an American branch of the CFZ for over ten years now, it is only now that it has a dedicated blog.

Saturday, 31 October 2015

October 31st is Hallowe'en. It was brought to America by Irish and Scottish immigrants. In origin, it was the start of the New Year among the pagan Celts. In the Gaelic languages it is called Oiche Shamhna (Irish) and Oidhche Shamna (Scottish). The day following it was called Samhain (pronounced sowwin). This was the first day of the new year and not the name of an ancient god, as some have been misinformed.

On the eve of Samhain it was believed that the gates to the Otherworld were open and this was a time the dead and other creatures could come for a visit. It was not an anti-Christian occasion.

In Ireland, Jack-a-Lanterns were carved from turnips to add to the ghostly atmosphere. When the celebration was taken up in the United States, the pumpkin was favored.

There has been a rumor in the media for some time that blondes will become extinct in 200 years. This is based on what is alleged to have been a study by the World Health Organization. The story is quite untrue. Blondes are not treading the Dodo Path. The supposed study never took place.

1969: Witness Wes Strang claims a sighting of Bigfoot
"squatting" outside his rural home, near Oroville, California. Strang
and the creature briefly stare at one another, then Strang reportedly goes back
inside his house to watch television without alerting neighbors or the
authorities.

Friday, 30 October 2015

2012: Bigfoot blogger Shawn Evidence announces the impending
"Apalachicola Sasquatch Study," planned by a group known as "The
Sasquatch Hunters," based in Florida. The group claims various discoveries
allegedly related to the Sunshine State's Bigfoot, commonly known as the
"Skunk Ape," but have yet to produce definitive evidence. Read more
on the project at http://bigfootevidence.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-apalachicola-sasquatch-study-to.html

2015: Yes, today! If you read this and you're in the
neighborhood, the Kentucky Bigfoot Research Organization plans a presentation
tonight titled "The Bluegrass Bigfoot," free and open to the public,
running from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. at the Bullitt County Public Library. Although
said library has four branches in as many different towns, and the KBRO's
website does not specify which one is hosting the event, the main library
stands at 127 North Walnut Street in Shepherdsville. Those interested may phone
for confirmation to 502-543-7675.

Wednesday, 28 October 2015

2004: A farmer in Forrest County, Mississippi—named for the
first "grand wizard" of the Ku Klux Klan—reports to the GCBRO that
strange events, allegedly involving Bigfoot, have persisted "for the past
two years." Most recently, on this date, he claims "loud growling
noises" followed by limbs breaking and a "high-pitched noise"
similar to "a tire peeling out." On other occasions, his cattle
refuse to enter the barn, and when he investigates with a flashlight, he sees "red
eyes" shining six to seven feet above ground level.

2011: Bigfoot blogger Shawn Evidence reviews the alleged
1924 Sasquatch attack on miners at Ape Canyon, near Mount St. Helens in
Washington State, including a two-year effort by paranormal investigators to
locate the original cabin site. Photos are included, but no mention is made of
the 1980s confession by notorious hoaxer Rant Mullins, that he and an uncle
faked the attack "as a joke." For more, see http://bigfootevidence.blogspot.com/2011/10/rediscovering-famous-bigfoot-attack.html

Yesterday I posted a link about alleged sightings of Centaurs. I would like to augment what is said in the article there with some actual cases. In 1963 James McKinney of Centerville (Illinois) was on the telephone to his police department reporting the sighting of a centaur. There was also a report of one from Melbourne (Florida).This was seen by a 10-year old child, his sister and a pair of friends. As far as I am aware, neither is in a "high strangeness" area. In 2006 rumor was circulating of centaur sightings in Canada, but I have no direct information on these. In 2011 a caller told the program Coast to Coast that she had seen a centaur herding other animals. Going over to Africa, a centaur was reported from Maru in Nigeria. It was said to be chasing women. It differed from other centaurs in that it had zebrine stripes from the neck down. A report on this creature was carried by the Nigerian News Agency in 2003.I would have thought that there would be strong objections to the possible existence of centaurs on physiological grounds. However, we should not assume that, because a creature seems a physical impossibility that it is one. There may be peculiar internal parts of a centaur that make it viable.

First, I begin with apologies for jumping the date
yesterday. Today is the 26th, in fact, and its proper entry follows...

2011: A retired software engineer reports sighting Bigfoot
near his cabin on Bassett Lake, in Superior National Forest near Brimson, Minnesota
(St. Louis County). He describes the creature as "a tall man type figure," wading through shallow water and reeds
near the lake's shore. It was "tan in color, looked broad shouldered and
bulky coming towards me close along the shoreline." Upon noticing the
witness, the animal flees at a rapid pace.

2014: To aid in hyping its TV program, "Killing
Bigfoot," the Gulf Coast Bigfoot Researchers Organization issues a
"wild guess" estimation of 30,000 hairy hominids at large in the U.S.
nationwide. The bulletin includes a list of places alleged to be the most
likely haunts of Sasquatcht, including two sites in Louisiana, plus one each in
Arkansas, California, Georgia, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Washington. Other likely spots, based on hundreds of reported sightings in Florida, Ohio, Oregon, and Pennsylvania, among others, are oddly ignored.

2014: The network Destination America airs a one-hour
program titled "Killing Bigfoot," in which armed members of the Gulf
Coast Bigfoot Research Organization try to do just that. In case you missed it,
they failed to find the elusive creature, much less bag a specimen.

2005: A motorist driving through a suburban portion of Genesee
County, Michigan, reports sighting a
tall, lanky, black figure walking on two legs across the road crossing the road
beneath a streetlight. He describes it as black, 7 to 8 feet tall, and "very
slender, with skinny legs and arms." He waits a month before
reporting the incident online.

I have recently received a copy of Richard Muirhead's latest issue of Flying Snake, his cryptozoological magazine. This publication seems to get better and better. I found an article by Javier Resines on Wild Men in the Pyrenees particularly interesting. A battle with a monster in Iowa in 1885 also features. Copies may be ordered from 112 High Street, Macclesfield, SK11 7QQ, UK. Subscriptions are £12 perannum (about $20) and £3.99 (about $5) for single copies.

1977: Future senator Bill O'Chee, a teenager at the time,
reports seeing an 8-foot-tall Yowie, Australia's version of Bigfoot, while on a
high school camping trip near Springbrook in Queensland. He describes it as
having "no neck," broad shoulders, and a flat face, the body covered
in brown hair just over two inches long. It flees on foot when several youths
pursue it, armed with stick.

Wednesday, 21 October 2015

King Arthur is a legendary king of the Ancient Britons who, after the Roman withdrawal from Britain, is said to have fought with the incoming English. (The descendants of the Ancient Britons include the Welsh, Cornish and Bretons). Whether Arthur ever existed is a moot point, but legend asserts he was connected with a number of birds, notably the Chough.The Chough is a red-legged bird of the crow family, regarded as the national bird of Cornwall. In the Cornish language it is called

an balores. According to a folktale, choughs were once black all over. The wizard Merlin had a pet chough which could understand human speech. One night a schemer named Murdoch sought to murder Arthur's queen. The chough attacked and killed him. When Arthur arrived on the scene, the bird's beak and legs were red with the malefactor's blood. The loyal fowl was knighted at once by Arthur. Since then, all choughs' legs have been red.After Arthur's death, it was believed he turned into a chough. A variant of the legend has it that he turned into a raven. One source asserts he turned into a puffin.

1989: A Vernon Parish, Louisiana, hunter seated in his deer
stand hears a "rumbling sound" and turns to see a hairy, bipedal
creature 8 to 9 feet tall and "stinky," weighing roughly 200 to 250
pounds, moving through the woods below his perch (which was 15 feet above
ground level). According to his wife, who reports the incident online in August
2006, he holds his fire because he "thought
it would attack if he missed shooting the huge animal."

2012: Blogger Robert Lindsay posts photos of a horse owned
by one Robin Lynne Pfeiffer of Michigan, allegedly snapped after "Bigfoot
braided its mane." Pfeiffer supposedly resides at a "Bigfoot
habituation site" where the creatures frequently appear. As Lindsay
admits, the photos were "met with quite a bit of ridicule" when
originally published and the incident "was never confirmed." Despite
common appearances of Bigfoot over a two-year period, Pfeiffer claims no photos
of the creature itself. See the horse photos and read more at https://robertlindsay.wordpress.com/2012/10/20/bigfoot-news-october-20-2012/

On a personal note, I invite all readers (if they exist!) to check out my latest from CFZ Press. Jon and the whole gang have done their usual great job on what is, more or less, a companion volume to my previous book, When Bigfoot Attacks. In this one, I examine all reports I could find of Bigfoot-type creatures being killed, captured, or found dead by humans.

2002: An adult female resident of Cusseta, Georgia, claims a
series of purported Bigfoot encounters in woods surrounding her home, including
odd smells and sounds, discovery of suspect hair, large humanoid footprints, and
"territorial markers." A GCBRO investigator follows up the report,
announcing collection of hair samples from trees six feet above ground level
and casting of 19 suspect footprints in plaster.

1968: Seven teenage boys riding in two cars claim a dramatic
encounter with Bigfoot, somewhere in Fulton County, Illinois. The reporting
witness says they saw a bipedal creature about 5 feet 6 inches tall, covered in
"brown hair with gray or silver ends," initially lying beside the
road, then rising when their cars stopped. One of the youths tries to tackle
it, believing it to be a prankster in a costume, but the creature knocks him
down, hurls gravel at the other boys, then flees "as fast as a deer,"
leaping over a fence and vanishing into the woods.

1973: Witness Paul Brown claims a UFO sighting at
Danielsville, Georgia. He reports a silver egg-shaped craft landing on the road
ahead of his car, disgorging two humanoids 4 to 4½ feet tall in shiny silver
garb. They retreat and the UFO takes off with a "whooshing" sound
after Brown draws a pistol.

2004: A resident of rural Harrison County, Mississippi,
hears "huffing" sounds and "eerie screams" outside his home,
and "instinctively felt this was
not a normal animal." He sees nothing but later compares the sound to
recordings found on the GCBRO website, concluding that what he heard was
Bigfoot.